THE CONQUEST OF HIGÜEY
THE EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF LAS CASAS EXAMINED
AND THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR THE
PARQUE NACIONAL DEL ESTE, REPÚBLICA DOMINICANA

Samuel Turner
Institute of Maritime History

Higüey, the easternmost cacicazgo, or chiefdom, on the island of Española (Fig. 1), had been a
key provider of cazabe bread since the founding of the gold mining town of San Cristóbal in
1496 and the fort on the Ozama River named Santo Domingo in 1498. Miguel Díaz de Aux and
Francisco de Garay, discoverers of the rich gold deposits in the Haina river established a friendly
relationship with Cotubanamá, the cacique of Higüey, who provided these settlements with
cazabe bread and other food stuffs from his realm which included the island of Saona. By 1500,
Saona Island had become one of the primary cazabe production centres supplying Santo
Domingo.

The incident which led to the collapse of friendly and beneficial relations between the cacicazgo
of Higüey and the Spanish was of such striking stupidity and thoughtlessness one is hard pressed
to find its equal. In 1502, a few days before the arrival of Nicolás de Ovando and his fleet, fated
to be destroyed on its return voyage by the great hurricane of 1502, a caravel called at Saona
island to load a cargo of cazabe as was the custom. Las Casas, who has left us the only
eyewitness account of the conquest of Higüey, describes the cordial relations that existed
between the two peoples.

After the customary greetings, the business of loading cargo was undertaken. The bread was
loaded into the ship's boat by Indians and delivered to the caravel in successive trips. This was
being supervised by the cacique of the island, who directed his Indians with a sceptre, or vara, of
office. A captain, by the name of Salamanca, stood near by with his attack dog on a chain. The
animal became highly agitated by the cacique's gestures with the vara. The captain restrained his
dog with difficulty and commented to a companion, "Wouldn't it be something if we set him on
him". One or the other said to the dog, "take him", believing they could restrain the dog. Upon
hearing the word, the dog lunged for the cacique dragging the Spaniard after him until he let go.
Las Casas gives a vivid account.

Mourning their disembowelled cacique, the Indians took his body for funeral rites while the
Spaniards collected their dog and left with their caravel full of bread. The news of the incident
quickly spread throughout Higüey. The cacique Cotubanamá was outraged and promptly armed
himself and his warriors and awaited an opportunity to avenge the foul deed.

News of the incident and the impending uprising had reached Santo Domingo by the time the
fleet bearing Ovando and Las Casas arrived in April 1502, probably brought by captain
Salamanca upon his return from Saona. This is made apparent in a statement of Las Casas,
which also makes clear his character and intentions upon his first arrival in the New World.
"Estos eran los indios alzados y de guerra que nos daban por buenas nuevas los que acá estaban
cuando venimos, porque terníamos dónde hacer esclavos".

The seasoned colonist in Santo Domingo regarded the impending revolt as glad tidings for it
presented an opportunity to take slaves for the mines and, as Las Casas himself asserts, he went
along with the same intention.

The province of Higüey and Saona apparently went unvisited until Governor Ovando sent en
expedition to found a villa at Puerto Plata shortly after the great hurricane. They unwittingly
stopped at Saona and eight went ashore to stretch their legs. The inhabitants of the island, seeing
the approach of the vessel, set an ambush and killed the unwary Spaniards.

Ovando, upon hearing the news, moved to wage war on Higüey and levied troops from the four
villas of the island, Santiago, Concepción, el Bonao, and Santo Domingo. Included in this force
were most of the new arrivals who still remained healthy. It seems the army numbered between
three or four hundred Spaniards according to Las Casas, who tells us they took many of their
subject Indians with them. These he says, for fear and wishing to please their masters, fought on
their behalf. This later became the custom throughout the Indies.

The units from the different villas were each headed by a resident captain under the overall
command of a captain general -Juan de Esquivel. They were met in Higüey by an armed
population who had not yet experienced the rude shock of Spanish arms.

With cross bows, primitive firearms, steel swords, lances, and dogs, the Spaniards quickly
defeated their opponents armed with bows, unpoisoned arrows, and throwing stones. Apparently
the cavalry were especially ruthless for Las Casas relates that a single horseman could lance two
thousand Indians in an hour. This would seem to be an exaggeration for it would require the
horseman to lance 33.3 Indians a second which is clearly impossible. However, we may believe
they were a deadly force.

Many Indians were killed and maimed and when the Spaniards entered villages, the Indians,
after making a brief stand, fled to the mountains and scrub. This was the first phase of the war.
After the villages had been abandoned, the Spaniards pursued the Indians to their hideaways
where they carried out numerous massacres.

This phase of the first campaign undoubtedly survives in the archaeological record. It will have
left destruction layers in sedentary settlements of some age with rich deposits of cultural
material extending for long periods into the past. Included in the destruction layer will be Indian
arrow heads of fish bone, Spanish crossbow bolt tips, and possibly firearm shot which Las Casas
tells us were used in the first campaign. These will yield information on the kind of firearm used
during the campaign.

The Indians who fled their villages set up temporary camps, probably within reasonable distance
to a source of potable water. These camps will have left archaeological remains as well, many
probably exhibiting destruction layers. These will appear as nomadic camps with poor material
culture as the sedentary settlements were abandoned in a great hurry making it unlikely many
possessions were brought to them. Some of these settlements may have remained occupied after
the end of hostilities and others abandoned leaving only a thin layer of archaeological material.
These nomadic camps will be of great interest because they may yield clues as to how the
Indians adapted to the new conditions and environment. Changes in diet are likely and may be
reflected in the archaeological record. Also, information as to the extent of industrial activity
may possibly be found such as the production of ceramics and the working of stone.

Sometime during this first campaign, a caravel put in along the coast and Juan de Esquivel and a
number of troops boarded for passage to Saona island. There the Indians resisted as best they
could before fleeing. They were quickly followed. Six or seven hundred men were captured and
confined in a house and then put to death. Esquivel had the bodies placed and counted in the
plaza arriving at the above figures. Those that were taken alive and not put to death were made
slaves. Thus the island of Saona, once the bread basket for Santo Domingo, was left deserted and
destroyed. Here again, firearms shot may be found.

After a period of being hunted down and killed or enslaved, the Indians of Higüey sent envoys to
the Spaniards claiming they no longer wished to fight and would serve if only the Spanish would
cease their pursuit. Juan de Esquivel and his captains received the Indians and assured them they
would do them no more harm and so could return and dwell in their villages without fear. The
newly subjugated Indians were commanded to lay out a vast field of yuca from which they
would make cazabe bread for the King and, upon executing this command, were to be free to
live in their land and not be obliged to come and serve in Santo Domingo.

It is probable the Spaniards were as eager to end the war as the Indians. Santo Domingo, from its
founding, was largely dependent on bread imports from both Saona island and greater Higüey.
The war left bread production and procurement mechanisms in complete disarray and with the
large influx of Spaniards who had arrived with Ovando only months before, Santo Domingo
went through a period of severe food shortage.

The war was closed with some solemnity, on the Indian's part anyway, by the ceremonial
exchange of names between Juan de Esquivel and Cotubanamá, whose estate and lands, Las
Casas tells us, were on the mainland fronting Saona island. The ceremony was a pledge between
individuals to life long friendship and comradeship in arms.

Juan de Esquivel had a fort built somewhere near the coast and garrisoned it with nine men
under a captain Martín de Villamán. Then the Spaniards left, each to his villa with his share of
slaves. So ended the first War of Higüey.

The second war broke out one and a half to two years later in 1504. Not surprisingly, it was
brought about by abuse of the Indians in Higüey by the few Spaniards left in the fort under the
command of Villamán. Indians were forced to transport cazabe they had produced to Santo
Domingo, against the understanding reached with Esquivel, as well as forcing them to undertake
labour in Santo Domingo, a more transparent infraction of the agreement. These offences
coupled with the Spaniards tendency to steal women led to continual frustration and anger
resulting in an attack on the fort which was burned and all Spaniards, save one who delivered the
news, killed.

As before, Ovando levied troops from the four major villas, placing them once again under Juan
de Esquivel from the villa of Santiago de los Caballeros. Making his debut on the stage of
history was Juan Ponce de León, a resident and captain of the contingent from Santo Domingo.
Diego de Escobar, a former adherent of the rebellious Francisco Roldan, was the captain from
Concepción. The name of the captain from Bonao unfortunately escaped Las Casas's memory at
the time of his writing. The able bodied men who could be spared from the villas amounted to
some three hundred troops. As in the last campaign, they took their subject Indian warriors with
them.

When the Spaniards arrived in Higüey, the news of their arrival was spread throughout the
province by smoke signals transmitted from one village to the next. The women, children, and
elders where placed in the most secret locations known to the Indians. Las Casas describes the
Indian's preparations.

Since these evacuations were conducted in an organised manner considerably more material will
have accompanied them to their new camps. These sites will yield more cultural material and
probably less signs of industry than camps of the first campaign as there may not have been as
urgent a need for manufacturing ceramics as in the earlier camps. Also, their diets may have
differed from those in the camps of the first campaign since food supplies were probably stocked
at the time the settlements were evacuated.

The Spanish army entered Higüey and advanced until they found suitable ground to encamp and
establish their base of operations. They chose an area that was flat and clear so that they might
manoeuvre and take advantage of their cavalry.

After obtaining information from captives the Spaniards went to a large settlement where they
found many Indians gathered from the surrounding villages. These were in the street armed with
bows and arrows and howling war cries which Las Casas states were very eerie and he believed,
had the Indians' weapons inspired as much fear as their cries, things would not have gone as
badly with the Spaniards as they did.

The Indians and the Spaniards, armed with crossbows, engaged. The Indians loosed their arrows
from maximum range and Las Casas describes them arriving so spent they would hardly kill a
dwarf. The Spaniards, keeping just out of range of the Indian bows, fired volleys of crossbow
bolts.

This important passage gives us a clear idea of the effectiveness of Indian bows versus Spanish
crossbows. Clearly, the native bows were not as strong and powerful as the contemporary
English longbow which so devastated the French mercenary crossbowmen at the Battle of Crécy
in 1346 over a century and a half earlier. This passage is also very important because it mentions
crossbows were the principal weapon because few or no espingardas, a kind of firearm, were in
use at the time. This is intriguing for a kind of firearm, the escopeta, was used during the first
campaign. Is it possible Las Casas has inadvertently described the time during which a primitive
firearm was being replaced by a more sophisticated one? We know from archaeological sources,
notably the Molasses Reef Wreck and Pre-Site Two off Saona island that the earliest type of
firearm used by the Spanish in the New World was the haquebut, a heavy, wrought-iron muzzle
loading portable weapon. At Molasses Reef, which apparently was wrecked no later than 1513,
they are found together with the remains of an arquebuz, an early form of matchlock whose bore
diameter was smaller than that of the larger haquebut. Is Las Casas describing the transition
from the haquebut, which he terms escopeta, to the predominance of the arquebuz, called by him
espingardas, between 1502 and 1504? Finding firearms shot from land sites associated with the
War of Higüey may shed light on this issue.

As the battle in the large settlement described above progressed, the Indians retreated as the
Spaniards advanced not caring to get within the effective range of Spanish sword. A number of
Indians, mortally wounded, pulled the crossbow bolts from their bodies and broke the projectile's
head off with their teeth, throwing them at the Spaniards as a last act of defiance.

This battle broke the first centralised and co-ordinated defence of the Indian warriors who then
joined village and family units in their secret camps. As in the previous campaign, it turned into
a slave hunt as the Spanish army broke into smaller companies called cuadrillas. The Indians
probably reverted to a hit and run form of warfare with small bands of Indian archers laying
ambushes for the Spanish companies in hilly and forested regions. The Spaniards occasionally
took a spy or caught an Indian travelling between groups. These were tortured to extract
information then bound and made to lead the way to the hidden Indian encampments.
Occasionally, a bound Indian, whose line was held by a Spaniard walking with him, would jump
off a cliff in hopes of taking the Spaniard with him and saving those he was being forced to
betray.

Finding an encampment, the Spaniards would fall upon it and spare neither children, elders,
men, nor women, pregnant or otherwise. After devastating the encampment, Indians who had
escaped the massacre were usually captured in the surrounding forest. Of these, a number would
have their hands hacked off or have the skin flayed from their bodies and sent away to take the
message to the rest of their kind as to what awaited them at their enemies' hands. These quickly
bleed to death and the only message received were the feelings and impressions an Indian had
when coming upon such a body in the forest, perhaps a friend or relative.

Receiving news that Cotubanamá was awaiting their arrival in his town with a gathered host, the
Spaniards decided to attack. They followed the coast to a place where two paths to
Cotubanamá's village were found. One was well cleared, everything which may have been a
hindrance removed. The other was blocked with branches, felled trees, and chopped foliage.
Being past masters of treachery themselves, the Spaniards intued they were meant to take the
cleared trail where the Indians would have an ambush set and so instead went down the blocked
trail clearing it as they went. The trail was only obstructed for half a league with the remainder
of the trail open and clear. On their guard, they moved up the path until they were on the
outskirts of the village which they attacked at two in the afternoon, surprising those in the village
as well as those along the other path in ambush.

Again, the Spanish employed their crossbows with deadly efficiency. The battle filled the streets
of Cotubanamá's village, the Indians keeping the Spanish swords at bay with their bows while
their number was depleted by crossbow fire. Eventually, many dropped their bows and
approached the Spanish to launch volleys of stones which were hand launched with out the help
of a sling. The Indians fought on fearlessly despite seeing so many of themselves felled by
crossbows until something incredible happened.

An Indian, taller than most, and armed with a bow and a single arrow, stepped forward gesturing
to the Spanish a challenge for one of them to face him in single combat. An experienced Indian
fighter, Alexos Gómez, moved forward. He was armed with sword and dagger -sheathed, a half
lance, and an adáraga, a large reed or bamboo (caña) shield. As he steeped forward the Indian
boldly approached with his bow half drawn waiting for a good opening to fire. Alexos put the
half-lance in his shield hand and began flinging stones at the Indian. These he deftly avoided,
dodging them and jumping about. Everyone, Indians and Spaniards alike, were so amazed by the
spectacle that all fighting stopped and everyone gathered to watch the two combatants. These
were so close to one another that occasionally the Indian leapt kicking at the Spaniard who
ducked behind his shield. Alexos grabbed more stones and continued flinging them while the
Indian continued seeking an opening to launch his arrow. This continued for some time, the
Spaniard throwing innumerable stones none of which hit. Eventually the Indian rushed him and
almost got his arrow over the shield's edge. Alexos desperately crouched down raising his shield
over his head. Seeing his opponent to be so close, he dropped his stones and grabbed his
half-lance thrusting directly at the Indians body. His lancehead meet only air as the Indian
mocked and laughed at him from a safe distance to which he had leapt. The Indians all gave a
great cheer and laughed and scoffed at the Spaniards who stood back in amazed admiration,
Alexos Gómez himself Las Casas wrote, seemed happier than if he had killed his opponent.Thus
ended the day's fighting and dusk dispersed the two opposing hosts.

This account by Las Casas should be carefully considered when analysing the findings of the
archaeological investigation currently under way at the Manantial de la Aleta, located in
Cotubanamá's village in the Parque Nacional del Este. The large deposit of cultural material in
the Manantial, or watering hole, may be objects and goods not taken to temporary camps during
the evacuation and deposited there to prevent their use by the Spaniards who were known to be
coming. If two destruction layers are found at this site indicating the settlement's destruction
during the first campaign as well, the Manantial deposit should be investigated to determine if
there are two different episodes of deposition associated with the separate campaigns.

The rumour that there are human bones in the Manantial is interesting. The many bodies of
Indian warriors slain by crossbow fire may have been deposited there by the Indians to prevent
the use of the Manantial and the settlement by the Spanish army which may have considered the
site an attractive one not just for its abundant source of water but also for being the site of
Cotubanamá's capital and the psychological impact its occupation would have on the Indians. If
bones are found in the Manantial de la Aleta, they should be carefully examined to determine
gender and age. If they are the remains of Indian warriors slain during the battle of the second
campaign, they will prove mostly male and of an age distribution commensurate with an Indian
fighting force. This is the only archaeological site so far known to have seen fighting during the
War of Higüey and for which there is a written eyewitness account.

Following the remarkable single combat episode, the Indians of Higüey gave up any hope of
defeating the Spaniards in pitched battle and those in hiding were joined by the warriors. The
Spaniards reacted by breaking into cuadrillas in search of Indians, and above all, the caciques,
Cotubanamá in particular.

The Indians were cautious and left little sign of their passing in the forest. Las Casas contends
this was because they walked barefoot and naked and presumably were careful to avoid
scratches, scrapes, and other injury by picking their path carefully. Among the Spaniards were a
number of excellent trackers who, we are told, could find the clue to an Indian's tracks in a
single overturned leaf or the smell of distant smoke on the breeze. They also used the tried
method of capturing a single Indian and forcing him to lead the way to their camp, which was
attacked mercilessly and all who could not or did not flee at once were slaughtered to the last
individual. New methods were invented to humiliate and horrify while putting Indians to death.
The Spaniards were purposely cruel in this campaign in order to inspire so much fear in the
Indian population they would never consider rising against the Spaniards again.

An interesting aspect of this war has come through in Las Casas's narrative seemingly more by
accident than by design; namely the workings and manner of the Spanish military machine. The
Spanish military camp was mobile as one might suspect. When the campaign opened it was
established in a cleared and open area so that the Spanish could utilise their cavalry. Presumably
this was a defensive measure in order to employ the cavalry against a mass attack on the camp.
The camp moved about the province depending on the objectives of the campaign. This is made
clear by a passage in Las Casas where he describes what occurred when a cuadrilla of thirteen
Spanish soldiers stumbled into an Indian camp of several thousand individuals.

This passage is packed full of information. The Spanish camp, or real, he says, on the move, had
halted nearby that afternoon. The camp was of crucial importance and was under the
administration of a governor, or Alguacil. Here the troops were quartered, with the possible
exception of those on patrol in the field. Here the sick and wounded would be attended and the
supplies, food, weapons, and otherwise, would have been kept. The military horse, and
presumably pack animals as well, with all the attendant saddlery and leather work were
accommodated and attented to. It is also likely that an armouror or two were to be found in the
camp kept busy replacing and fixing the rodelas and adáragas, the cane or bamboo shields used
in combination with the round rodelas. These, as is clear from numerous quoted passages, filled
with arrows and needed repairing or fixing on a regular basis. Edged weapons had to be
sharpened and crossbows with their mechanical parts of iron, susceptible to corrosion, had to be
cared for. Crossbow strings, imported from Spain, which broke or were destroyed had to be
replaced. It is likely a blacksmith, with his bellows, anvil, and tools would have been found in
the camp employed in repairing or manufacturing iron work such as horse shoes, stirrups,
swords, daggers, lance heads, crossbow arrow heads, crossbow bows, armour, and any other
assorted iron work. A kitchen of some sort would also have been present and a supply of water
for man and beast alike. All in all a very complicated and busy affair.

Such camps in all probability have left archaeological remains in the form of camp and forge
fires with their slag waste, rubbish dumps, and possibly post holes if any sort of large structures
such as a stockade, or lodgings for the captain general and others were temporarily erected.
The real was regularly supplied by sea from Santo Domingo. Vessels owned or under contract to
the crown were used to bring supplies of cazabe bread, wine, cheese, and other European goods.
These in all probability called at various bays and rivers depending on where the real was
located at the time. It seems likely these would sometimes be located inland thus necessitating
the use of a train of pack animals to carry the supplies. Ovando clearly realised an army marched
on its stomach and did everything possible to provide his men with good and ample supplies.
That Ovando backed the war effort to the best of his ability is evident from this distribution of
sorely needed supplies to the military when the war by virtue of its existence caused a severe
food shortage in Santo Domingo and the mining zones.

The above quoted passage also contains a description of a typical Spanish cuadrilla, the basic
unit of the conquest, and how it was armed and behaved when confronted by a considerably
larger force. The cuadrilla discussed was thirteen men strong under a commander and possibly
assisted by two sub-commanders. This company had four crossbowmen. The others were armed
with lances, or more probably half lances which were found to be more effective in the forests of
Española and later those of San Juan Bautista as well. It seems that all Spanish troops were
equipped with swords, daggers and, perhaps most importantly, shields, of which there appear to
be two varieties in this period, the reed or bamboo adáraga manufactured on Española, and the
rodela, a more traditional European shield which may have been imported.

Upon encountering the enemy host, the crossbow men let fly their bolts. Perhaps due to panic
and mishandling or simply bad luck, the cords of three crossbows broke rendering them useless.
The Indians were kept at bay, Las Casas states, by the forth crossbowman threatening to fire his
weapon. The Indians filled the Spaniards' shields with arrows and pelted them with stones until
reinforcements arrived form the camp which had halted nearby that afternoon and been alerted
by the commotion. There was considerable killing and Las Casas says a great number of women,
children, and Indians of other ages were taken captive.

The usual cruelties were carried out with the warning that the same would happen to all unless
they surrendered. At this stage, many Indians claimed they wished to surrender but feared
reprisals and attacks by Cotubanamá who ordered his subjects never to surrender. The capture of
Cotubanamá became paramount.

During the campaign, which lasted between eight and ten months, there was great hunger on the
island. As the Spanish had never undertaken agricultural production themselves they were
entirely dependent on Indian production and expensive imports from Spain. Warfare caused the
Indians to flee and, as in the first campaign, the mechanisms for food production and
procurement collapsed causing starvation and the death of many Spaniards. In spite of Ovando's
efforts at supply, the field army always seemed to lack sufficient supplies during the campaign.
This was partly resolved by sending out squads of captured Indian slaves under guard to collect
guíyagas, a wild root only utilised by the Indians of Higüey to make a particular kind of bread.
These roots would be collected and taken back to the real where Indian slaves would produce
bread.

It became known through the interrogation of Indian prisoners that Cotubanamá had gone to
Saona island where he was in hiding with his family and some of his ablest warriors. Esquivel
sent for a caravel, ordering it to arrive at night so that he might embark his troops without being
seen by Cotubanamá's observers.

Las Casas writes that Cotubanamá was based with his family in a large cave in the middle of the
island. Having frequently seen the caravel carrying and delivering supplies for the real, and
never being sure its purpose was not to land troops, either before or after dropping off supplies,
Cotubanamá had a network of coast watchers stationed at the most likely landing places. Every
day just before dawn, he arose and went with twelve of his most trusted warriors to the landing
he suspected of being the most likely target.

The caravel arrived one night and Juan de Esquivel embarked along with fifty other troops
and arrived there at dawn. The Indian watches set at the chosen landing site were late that
morning, perhaps because the caravel had not been observed in the vicinity the previous day.
Twenty to thirty Spaniards had landed before the Indians were aware of their presence.

The two unfortunate coast watchers were captured on their way to the landing site and brought
before Esquivel. They were questioned as to the whereabouts of Cotubanamá to which one
seems to have responded that he would be patrolling near by. Esquivel took out his dagger and
plunged it into one of the Indians, presumably the one who gave no information thus putting
considerable fear into the remaining captive who was probably used to guide the Spaniards.
Hearing Cotubanamá was near by, a group of Spaniards rushed forward, each wishing to be the
one who captured or killed the great Indian cacique. The trail they took split and all the
Spaniards save one, Juan Lopes, an island resident of many years, took the trail to the right.
Lopes followed the trail to the left and soon found himself face to face with a dozen large and
well armed Indians.

Believing they had run into an entire cuadrilla, the Indians bent their bows and prepared to
launch a volley of arrows when Juan Lopes asked after their cacique. They responded "See him,
he comes from behind". They stepped aside and Juan Lopes passed between them, his sword
drawn. Cotubanamá, surprised by his unexpected presence, attempted to notch an arrow, but
before he could, Juan Lopes was upon him wounding Cotubanamá with a thrust of his sword.
Cotubanamá grabbed him and lifted him off his feet. Lopes slashed his hands and then gave the
cacique another blow with his sword. "Don't kill me, I'm Juan de Esquivel" cried Cotubanamá,
reminding Lopes that he had exchanged names with the captain general. At this point his
personal guard fled leaving the vanquished cacique with Juan Lopes who placed his sword point
to Cotubanamá's belly and a hand on his shoulder. While pleading for his life he turned on Juan
Lopes and knocked the sword from his hands falling upon him with his entire body weight. The
commotion of the meeting, the ensuing struggle, and pleas for mercy were heard by the
Spaniards on the other trail who came running. The first Spaniard on the scene found the cacique
on top of Juan Lopes strangling him and struck him with his unloaded crossbow breaking his
hold on Lopes. The last free cacique of Española was made prisoner.

The above passage by Las Casas describing the place where the Spaniards landed on Saona
island is of interest. Thirty or forty Spaniards, Las Casas wrote, landed before they were detected
by the Indians and climbed a certain high mount. The only high ground on Saona island is found
in the very east of the island and is probably where Esquivel landed his men. The safest place to
land in the hilly east would be on the north coast in the vicinity of Cayo Ratón which provides a
safe and sheltered landing zone. This is also close to South Catalinita Reef, where Pre-Site Two
and its collection of haquebuts is found. Did Esquivel land in the same area during his attack on
Saona carried out in the first campaign? If Las Casas has described the replacement of the
haquebut, or escopeta, used in 1502 by the arquebuz, or espingarda, sometime after 1504, it is
possible Pre-Site Two with its cargo of haquebuts was involved in the first campaign during
1502 either transporting troops to Saona or supplying the Spanish real.

After Cotubanamá's capture, he was bundled into Esquivel's caravel which sailed to Santo
Domingo. There he was delivered into the hands of Nicolás de Ovando where the cacique was
later hanged by the governor's order.

With the imprisonment and execution of Cotubanamá all organised Indian resistance ceased.
The termination of the Second War of Higüey marked the end of the conquest of Española, an
intermittent war which had lasted twelve years.

The conquest was followed by a period of settlement in which the Governor had thirteen villas
established through out the island to disperse the Spaniards and control the centres of Indian
population. In Higüey, two settlements were established. One was inland and called Sancta Cruz
de Aicayagua, the other, near the sea, was called Salvaleón de Higüey.

So began the town and port of Salvaleón, the seat and estate of Juan Ponce de León, and the
primary supplier of salt pork and cazabe bread to the soon to be founded villas of San Germán
and Puerto Rico on the neighbouring island of San Juan Bautista.

The War of Higüey was the final act in the conquest of the island of Española, the first island to
fall to the Spaniards in the New World. Much of the archaeology of this conquest is preserved in
the Parque Nacional del Este, Dominican Republic.

The archaeological sites include mobile Spanish military camps, so far unstudied in the New
World. A number of these may be found allowing archaeologists to trace the main body
movement of the Spanish army during the two separate campaigns of the war.

During the course of the two campaigns many Indian settlements were destroyed, a number of
them were possibly destroyed twice, if reoccupied after the first campaign, and show up in the
archaeological record as two separate destruction layers. Not mentioned in Las Casas's account
of the first campaign and of particular interest is whether Cotubanamá's settlement, the site of
the Manantial de la Aleta, was destroyed during the first campaign.

The temporary camps of the two campaigns will be distinguishable since the manner in which
they were established differed considerably. These will be helpful in allowing archaeologists and
anthropologists to understand how the Indians coped with the sudden change from a sedentary
and peaceful existence to a nomadic one fraught with danger.

Marine and land archaeology investigations being initiated in the Parque Nacional del Este have
the potential to shed considerable light on one of the archetypal military actions that set the
pattern for the Spanish conquest of the Americas.